Football - Liverpool FC: JAMIE CARRAGHER is almost certain to be on the plane for South Africa – as the Liverpool centre-back explained his decision to come out of international retirement.

Carragher was yesterday named in England's provisional 30-man World Cup squad by coach Fabio Capello.

Everton's Leighton Baines has also been included as reward for his impressive performances for the Goodison outfit this season.

But there was no room for team-mate Phil Jagielka, with Liverpool duo Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson the other Merseyside representatives in the party for the friendlies against Mexico at Wembley on May 24 and against Japan in Graz on May 30.

Capello will trim his squad down to the final 23 on June 1, and has refused to guarantee Carragher will be among those to make the cut.

But it seems unlikely the Italian would go through the effort of coaxing the 32-year-old back into the international arena only to discard him for the World Cup.

“He is one of the 30 players,” said Capello “During the training camp I will evaluate the performance of each player, after that I will decide.”

Detailing how Carragher's return to the international fold came about, Capello added: “We started two months ago, we spoke with him, (Capello's assistant) Franco Baldini met him two weeks ago and he was happy to stay with us and we decided to select him.

“I selected him because he is a really, really good player.”

With doubts over Rio Ferdinand and John Terry, and Wes Brown and Joleon Lescott ruled out through injury, Capello sought to talk Carragher out of an international retirement that lasted almost three years.

And explaining his change of heart, Carragher said: “The FA got in touch and asked if I would have a rethink, due to injury problems. I said I would make myself available.

“The World Cup and Champions League are the highest levels of football.

“I'm not getting any younger, we have no Champions League football next season and I am keen to work under Fabio Capello.”

Capello was less successful in his attempts to talk Wayne Bridge out of making himself unavailable, following the defender's much-publicised fall-out with former England captain John Terry.

And it has opened the door for Baines and Aston Villa’s Stephen Warnock, also included in the final 30, to fight it out for the role of Ashley Cole's understudy at left-back.